Ashes to Ashes
by procras-tea-nation
Summary: Bodies are everywhere and Katara doesn't have time to wipe away freefalling tears.


Uhm, hello there. I do a lot of fics in my spare time, and the other day remembered that I still had an account here.

It's Katara x Zuko, but very mild. Mainly what I'm looking for is criticism on the way I write and if I should re-word any part of it. I'm not confident that this story is amazing or anything, but I scrawled it down yesterday and thought I should get some critique.

Enjoy, :)

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Ashes to Ashes

Bodies are everywhere and Katara doesn't have time to wipe away freefalling tears. They encase her broken face, framing the hurt and the pain gathered by the blood stains that would never completely wash away. A swift flick of her fingers and a man's—a boy's?—neck snaps unwillingly. She closes her eyes and imagines his body sliding to the ground, traces of life no longer remnant.

She can't linger long and she can't give mercy, because the last time someone gave mercy they had sealed their fate. A sword pokes her side, the female warrior a few feet away, and she presses it in harder.

Katara clenches her teeth at the sight of a smirk, and practically hurls herself at the woman, freezing the water and digging it into every part of her she can manage. As soon as that happens, she blood bends again, and this woman slumps down, down, down. It's all Katara has not to scream, not to be distracted.

_Not like Sokka, not like Sokka._

No, not like Sokka. The tears are there again, blurring her vision and flooding her mind with memories she tried so hard to keep tucked away. But in an instant she is dragged back to the battle and the sound of the sword sticking right through him; she is dragged back to her brother's side as he bleeds so quickly she can't gather her thoughts in time to repair the damage that was done.

_Fire._

With a graceful movement of her arms, the fire is out in an instant, the younger warrior stunned and at the same time, afraid. She realizes how horrible she must look to someone so young, like a walking destruction, like the element she never understood. His eyes are so dark, and as each second passes she keeps getting lost in them, trying to find something instead of her own frightening reflection. A pair of warm hands grab her arms suddenly, and a moment skips before she starts to react. Thrashing, she turns around, slapping his hands away and forming more water.

_Gold eyes. Pink scar. _

Her breathing is still so heavy, her heart leaping in her chest. "Zuko."

"Let's move on."

"No," she says firmly, and turns to look for someone who is no longer there.

"Katara," his voice is low, soothing. "Let's move on." She finds herself nodding, despite the knots that have formed in her stomach.

He leads her into the burned town, in front of the palace which seems in another world, somehow; its walls and pillars untouched by the ash and fire around it.

She moves quickly towards the palace, but a hand stops her, gently pushing her back.

"Zuko?"

"You must go back," he murmurs, a touch of his old self in that voice.

"No, I won't leave you, I can't leave you," she says, her hand clutching onto his sleeve. He looks down, clasping her hand with both of his. When he finds her eyes again, they're soft and pleading, and he doesn't have to say a word for Katara to know what he wants to do.

She shakes her head once, twice, and lets out a scream she had been holding in for so long. Water pours from her eyes and words pour from her mouth as she buries her head into his shoulder. His hands circle her waist, tracing a line up to her back and into her hair, finding her face and pulling it back to look at her.

"Katara."

"You could stay, you could come back with me and we'd all still be a family," she almost chokes on the word, "and you could be with Toph, with Aang, with _me_, and we'd all be so happy together. And we'd stay happy the rest of our lives, just sitting and doing nothing together forever."

"I can't, I don't have a choice. It's my destiny."

"_No!_ Your destiny is with us! It started with us and will end with us—please, Zuko. _Please, don't leave me alone_."

His eyes are glossy, and she reaches up to touch his scar. _Maybe you could be free of it._ She traces the lines of his lips, the straightness of his chin, finally resting at his collarbone. His eyes are closed, not a hint of emotion on his face. His hands find hers, suddenly pinning them down to her sides with a furrowed brow.

Then there is a press of rough skin to her forehead and he lingers, caught up in a moment; swept up in a romance that was anything but.

"You're right. My destiny ended with you."

Then his warm lips were gone and all she felt was the wind stinging her cheeks that were raw from the tears.

It was the last time she ever saw him, and more importantly, the last time he ever touched her.

* * *

Weeks later, after his body was blessed and burned, she took him to the top of a hill that overlooked Ba Sing Se. It was a quiet sunrise, the rest of the world seemingly unexsistant except for Katara and Zuko, both on top of this hill; the hill rumored to be the one Oma and Shu had met on. In a few minutes, the sky was a brilliant orange, her face glowing with warmth. He rested in a pouch that hung from her neck, and she took him out, not about to let the wind blow him away. She placed him carefully between her hands and held him close to her face, her eyes brimming with water.

"You will always rise with the sun," she whispered, and he finally slipped from her fingertips.

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**Author's Notes:** Hopefully you got the metaphor there. I would have said, "Zuko's ashes", but for some reason, using his name and talking about him as if he were still there made it more personal. (It also made it a bit sadder, to me at least).

Read and Review, please! :)

lovelyeyes15


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